Recap: Raptors 96, Cavs 88

Due to a puzzlingly flat performance, the Cavs lost to the Raptors in a game that wasn’t as close as the final score indicates.

–It’s not like the Raptors dominated this game or the Cavaliers closed an 18-point gap in garbage time, but the game didn’t feel terribly winnable after the Raps exploded for 33 points in the second quarter. The Raptors dominated the boards (45-34), and that rebounding differential indicates how much harder they played for 48 minutes.

–The Raptors are Kyriptonite. (I’m so sorry for that one, you guys.) He was thoroughly outplayed by Jerryd Bayless—who seemed to relish the challenge—and shot a paltry 5-for-17 from the field. Irving did some good things. He had seven assists, seven boards, and only one turnover. I think the way the Raptors defend the paint—they’re a very long, athletic team along their frontline—is one of the reasons Irving struggles so much against the Raptors. He had a number of shots blocked and altered when he entered the paint. Or maybe Irving is just trying to improve his friendship with Tristan Thompson by taking it easy on TT’s boyhood team. There has to be an explanation why he plays his worst basketball against one of the worst teams in the East.

–Speaking of TT… well, there’s not much to speak of. He did go 5-for-6 from the free throw line! To balance that out and return to his average, I assume he will have a game where he goes 0-for-15 before the season is over.

–These sorts of games illuminate why Antawn Jamison is both valuable to this team and not actually all that good. He put up 20 points, which was essential in keeping the offensively-challenged Cavaliers in the game, but he did it on 8-for-18 shooting, posted no rebounds, one assist, and played his usual brand of translucent defense. He also airballed a 20-foot two-pointer with, like, 20 seconds left on the shot clock about eight minutes into the fourth quarter. Antawn Jamison is the Oliver Stone of the NBA. He has a positive reputation that’s not entirely unfounded, but still: I mean, he’s terrible. (In this analogy, I believe Wall Street is Jamison’s leadership qualities, and Wall Street 2: Money Is an Inanimate Object So Why Would It Ever Sleep in the First Place is his inability to guard anyone born of woman and whose name contains a vowel.)

–Man, remember when the Suns were good and Leandro Barbosa would seemingly jump off the bench every night and drop 11 points in 2 minutes? He did that in this game. He posted a 12-point second quarter in which he drained a couple threes, a pull-up, and converted a few forays to the rim. Also, he’s only 29? Can we get Leandro Barbosa on a good team so he can do Leandro things once or twice per playoff series? I miss Brazilian Jamal Crawford being relevant.

Anyway, the Cavs will be in Milwaukee tomorrow to face what I believe will be a depleted Bucks team (since Monta won’t be uniform yet). Until tomorrow, friends.

Mallory, you mean like how Jameson can’t move laterally in the pick and role, and how he boxed out to the tune of 0 rebounds? that should never happen, especially when you are allowing your man to shoot 100% from the field, and aren’t helping off to stop the opposing center from putting up 8 for 15 either. Jameson, outside of somewhat efficient (for him) volume shooting didn’t do a damn thing in this game. Honestly, we will definitely be better off without him.

Maybe not this year, when we don’t have another scorer on the team, but as soon as we get another scorer, chances are he’ll be more efficient than jameson and a better defender by default.

But bring on the losses, I wish we could play toronto every game this year! My takeaways: Playoffs will still be hard to make, we SHOULD dump ramon and Jameson for whatever we can get by tomorrow, and Tristan hit some freebies!! Thats the most positive thing of the game! he’s pushing 48% now, steady improvement from when he started around 42%! although it seems to come at the expense of his FG%

(In this analogy, I believe Wall Street is Jamison’s leadership qualities, and Wall Street 2: Money Is an Inanimate Object So Why Would It Ever Sleep in the First Place is his inability to guard anyone born of woman and whose name contains a vowel.)

I really hate losing games like this, it’s even worse because our last few games were so solid agains very good teams. I just wish we were more consistent and either play like we really have a shot or deserve to be in the discussion for the playoffs, or just play to our expectations and the only thing we have to question is how many balls we’ll have bouncing around for the lottery. If we can beat OKC, we should really just demolish a team like the Raptors. With the Bucks coming up, we will have another chance to ‘earn’ our way into the conversation of being a surprise playoff team.

The Lineup: (Click for Author’s Archive)

Nate Smith is an Associate Editor. He grew up in Anchorage, Alaska, and moved to NE Ohio in 2000. He adopted the Cavs in 2003 and graduated from Kent State in 2009 with a BA in English. He can be contacted at oldseaminer@gmail.com or @oldseaminer on Twitter.

Tom Pestak is an Associate Editor. He's from the west side of Cleveland and lives and (mostly) dies by the success and (mostly) failures of his beloved teams. You can watch his fanaticism during Cavs games @tompestak.

Robert Attenweiler is a Staff Writer. Originally from OH, he's long made his home in NYC where he writes plays and screenplays (www.disgracedproductions.com) some of which end up being about Ohio, basketball or both. He has also written for The Classical and the blog Raising the Cadavalier. You can contact him at rattenweiler@gmail.com or @cadavalier.

Benjamin Werth is a Staff Writer. He was born in Cleveland and raised in Mentor, OH. He now lives in Germany where he is an opera singer and actor. He can be reached at blfwerth@gmail.com.

Cory Hughey is a Staff Writer. He grew up in Youngstown, the Gary, Indiana of Ohio. He graduated from Youngstown State in 2008 with a worthless telecommunications degree. He can be contacted at theleperfromwatts@yahoo.com or @coryhughey on Twitter.

David Wood is our Links Editor. He is a 2012 Graduate of Syracuse University with an English degree who loves bikes, beer, basketball, writing, and Rimbaud. He can be reached on Twitter: @nothingwood.

Mallory Factor is the voice of Cavs: The Podcast. By day Mallory works in fundraising and by night he runs a music business company. To see his music endeavors check out www.fivetracks.com. Hit him up at Malloryfactorii@gmail.com or @Malfii.

John Krolik is the Editor Emeritus of Cavs: The Blog. At present, he is pursuing a law degree at Tulane University. You can contact him at johnkrolik@gmail.com or @johnkrolik.

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